Summary
of Site Visits to Some of Italy's Marine Protected Areas: Torre Guaceto

Torre Guaceto

Of
the three marine protected areas in the region of Puglia, two are
on opposite sides of the "heel" of
the Italian peninsula. The smaller of these two, Torre Guaceto (Tower
of Guaceto) on the eastern coast along the Adriatic sea, protects
the coastal waters offshore of a regional terrestrial park. The MPA integrates the management
responsibilities of the terrestrial park and the marine protected
area. The management structure for the park and marine protected area
lie with a consortium of the city of Carovigno (principal management
responsibility), the city of Brindisi and the World Wildlife Fund.
The MPA manager works for both the park and marine protected area,
as well as for the Ministry of Environment in Rome who directs the
overall marine protected area program for Italy.

Map of Torre Guaceto marine protected area.

This potential for divergent direction can be a force multiplier because the manager can develope programs that benefit the
terrestrial park, the marine protected area, the local communities
and the administration in Rome. An interesting example of one the marine
protected area's
sustainable development projects involves helping the owner of a
local olive orchard convert to organic olives and olive oil, products
for which there is a large and growing market in central Europe. The
marine protected area has agreed to buy the olives for two years while
the orchard is converted to organic, a step that allows the grower
sustained return while he learns how to grow olives in a way that reduces
pesticide and fertilizer use and reduces harmful runoff into the park's
wetlands and into the marine protected area.

Quiet beach along Adriatic Sea, Torre Guaceto marine protected area.

Another
interesting development is that the director of the marine protected
area has discretion to issue permits to allow local commercial fishing.
Local fishermen have received support to develop fishing activities in other areas and avoid the entire
marine protected area. So instead of 8% of the marine protected area
being zoned for no harvest, effectively 100% of it now is. After monitoring for socioeconomic impacts to the fishermen,
the marine protected area may be able to permit them to fish within the zones
of the protected area that allow fishing.

The
marine protected area has a visitor center to serve both the park
and the marine waters. By being coupled with a terrestrial park, it
facilitates offering land-sea tourism opportunities, such as bicycle
touring along the coast, guided coastal walks, and "seawatching",
guided underwater tours for snorkelers or scuba divers.

The historic tower of Torre Guaceto, now used as educational location and observation post for Zone A.

The
marine protected area also has some submerged maritime resources, including
unexplored archaeological remains on one of the small offshore islands.
And the tower itself is an important cultural resource, reflecting
an old system to watch over the coastline from invading Turkish armies—each
tower in visual contact with the next one 2-3 miles away on the
coast line. When invaders arrived, by land or sea, soldiers in the
tower would light a signal fire, then replicated at the next tower,
and so on, until the signal reached the regional army. It is perhaps
fitting that the tower is now used by WWF staff as part of the
visual enforcement of the Zone As and Zone Bs of Torre Guaceto marine
protected area.